france 24, a different take on the news.

>> the middle eacht peace process resuscitated. israel and the palestinians will restart their peace talks in the united states on monday. more from our correspondent in washington, d.c. hopes are running high for a new era of democracy in mali as the counting begins in a crucial election. and a major merger for one of france's best-known companies. they look to form the world's biggest advertising company. top stories here on france 24 in paris. israel and the palestinians have agreed to restart peace talks on monday, three years after the previous effort nailed -- failed. the united states will host negotiations in washington, d.c.

the announcement after the israeli government agreed to release 104 palestinian prisoners. phillip, the talks in washington, d.c. where you are there on monday, after three years of going in wr, where will they actually tart -- start? >> because of those three years, they'll pretty much start in a no man's land. there is very little changed from the disagreements last time around. we will see a full day be talks on tuesday. talks to develop the procedural work plan on how to proceed in the coming months. in other words this is just a very first steppingstone to maybe lead to real peace negotiations further down the line. on that negotiating table will be the israeli justice minister, the palestinian chief

goguor, not -- negotiator, not the likes of the prime minister. the real issues won't be discussed, the likes of the settlements building and the precise reasons why these negotiations stopped three years ago. >> even if, as you say, this is just a steppingstone to more negotiations, this is still seen as quite a victory for john kerry. what's he been doing to get this process going again? >> this is a bit of a diplomatic victory for him. he has organized this and brokered this and that is why these talks about be taking place here in washington. presumably, john kerry, the u.s. secretary of state, will be at all the meetings. it comes off what they call truffle diplomacy, which means he's -- shuttle diplomacy,

which means he's been back and forth to the area six times in the months he's had the post of secretary of state. john kerry wants to do this a little bit better than hillary clinton did in the post and certainly has the booklet -- blessing of the us ut president, barack obama. it will be very interesting because there was little to report from his first term in office from the middle east peace process. >> we'll be coming back to you throughout the week as these talks progress the malians have spent the play -- day in a presidential election that could signal a new era of stability. this after a year and a half of chaos between taureg separatists and islamic extremists. it's been called the best

organized election since 1960. however, there have been concerns about security. the election observer says the process has gone relltibl smoothly. >> in the polling situation -- stations we visited, everything went well, quite peacefully. there was just one little protest from the mlma in front of our offices in kidal, trying to prevent people from voting but it was just a minor incident. >> gao is one of the towns that suffered particularly badly from the recent anti-islamist battles. sunday there was a party atmosphere. offensive coordinator irvine reports. >> a day to celebrate. despite soaring temperatures and long waiting lines, locals piled in to cast their ballots

and see a democratically elected government return. some who fled the violence just last year came back just in time to participate. >> i traveled 600 kilometers to be here for this vote. after all we've been through, it was great to get to this stage, a stage we couldn't have imagined, to get, to move on from the crisis and get a democratic process back the >> with the polling stations open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., he had to briefly shoe. up the shop and race across the city to get his ballot in. across the city, u.n. troops were on patrol. but locals felt no fear. >> it's over. it's over. their threats are all hot air. >> for him it's a reduction in the cost of living that he's voting for. >> i want to see change in terms of deliveries of

groceries and supplies. they need to be cheaper. that's what i really need to see happen. >> while some have already progressed past issues of security, others like this man who lost his hand to a grenade, simply wants democracy restored. >> we just want to have all our rights restored and securely. for that, we need a new president. >> mali was within weeks of presidential polls last year when many troops of islamic extremists spent -- swept the country. and it's not just in mali that people have been waiting. here in paris there's a sizeable malian community too. some of them cast their ballots on the outskirts of paris in

the suburbs. >> anger and frustration at the polls as malians cast their votes in paris. if everyone shouts and fights, we're not going to make it. we're in europe, we have to organize ourselves a little. crowds gathered outside the malian consulates, but it was different in this suburb, the town with the most malians outside of africa. here, voters had three polling stations to choose from. but six hours after polls officially opened, voting was just beginning. >> voters don't know where to vote. so polli stations don't exist and people don't know where to go. >> another area here meant to seven as a voting station but there's no voting kits or election officials and only eye handful of biometric voting

cards were handed out. >> 300 people, only 50 got eye card. -- a card. >> at this polling station, the doors were closed. residents decided to boycott it in protest of a lack of cards issued. the result? hundreds of malians descended on the consulate in paris, ventb -- venting their anger and demanding to exercise their right to vote. >> even though i have my voting card they won't let me vote! >> despite the chaos and the crowds, some did manage to cast their votes today. >> france has already done a lot and mali is grave. for that. already you see security forces everywhere. to maintain piece at -- peace at voting stations, that's already a vot -- lot. france helped us. but now it's up to us to do the rest.

>> pressured by france to hold elections in july, it was a scramble for mali but hopefully one that won't leave a bittersweet test. backers of egypt's ousted president morsi responded with defend yans. -- defiance. more violence broke out on sunday. morsi supporters were protesting the people killed in a brutal standoff with the security forces. >> tonight, morsi supporters are still in the streets protesting and we had another warning from a national defense council this evening that will take firm, decisive action, it said, if the protesters overstep their rights. earlier the interior minister had suggested the forces would soon move in and break up the two opposing camps.

he also announced he is reviving hosni mubarak's hated secret police, shut down after mubarak was toppled. and that's caused outrage here and another sign that authorities are not going to tolerate the protests that have led to so much bloodshed. the military was granted the right to arrest civilians. that is one step short of declaring a state of manager. but hearing from official sources that despite the warning from the minister, the military has plans to suspend. very briefly, kathryn is expected to arrive tonight. what is she going to be doing there in egypt? >> she was here just a couple

of weeks oak trying to broker some sort of negotiations. she's back to push that and stress to union's position, that is, that egypt should move but a peaceful transition period to new electioned and civilian rule. she's already expressed concern over the deaths of the morsi supporters in the early hours of saturday morning and is expected to meet members of the muslim brotherhood and also with vice president bar edaye tomorrow morning and could very well meet muhammad morsi himself, something she asked to do before. and the driver of the spanish train that detrailed at high speed faces charges of reckless homicide. until sunday, the driver had been refusing to answer police questions.

a -- an investigative judge spent sunday examining him and the black box recorder. he's now released pending trial. here in france, one of the biggest companies is getting ready to mearge with omnicom to create the world's biggest advertising firm. executives are confident it will go through. >> it's a megamerger to create the world's largest television firm. between them, publicis and omnicom are possible -- responsible for some of the world's biggest brands. the new company will have more power to influence prices. >> the clear intention that we're going to create value, create more opportunities, we're going to honor our talented people and our

talented clients and create something that no one else i think could even contemplate creating. >> the new firm will unite rile brands under the same roofs, including the likes of pepsi, coca-cola, microsoft and google. but they say it won't create conflicts of interest. >> we're already used to hamming clients in the same sector and we do it with agencies that use different names. it's something that's very common in the world of advertising. the omni com group will be head quartered in the netherlands. the group will face some competition laws. they will kneeled approval to go ahead.

and people filled brazil's copacabana beach for the pope's time mass there. the trip does seem to have paid disk i dends, with ever-bigger crowds flocking to see him. our correspondent is inryo. i asked -- in rio. i asked him how pleased the vatican will be with how it's gone. >> the crowd is new dispersing. a couple of commitments the pope still has, he's going to meet volunteers and then a farewell speech at the airport before flying back to rome. the big development today is that the pope has announceded the next world day will be held in krakow, poland in three years' time. >> that's where the very popular pope john paul was

from. we've seen this pope taking a very different approach from that taken by the church under previous popes. >> you said very popular, but that was social quietism of pope john paul and his successor, benedict, that really didn't play well in this part of the world at all. the sharp decline of the catholic church in this part of the world, especially at the lower ends of the income scale, and this pope wants to change that. completely different pope, talking about the rehabilitation of ploits -- politics, about the humanization of the economy. the key word is engaged. this is a catholic church that wants to fight for and win back the poor periphery. >> we've seen protests there over the high cost of living among other things.

can we say the pope's visit has had an impact in? the pope is using folksy language and tried to identify himself with peaceful protests abandon it would seem he's been very success. . however, the catholic church are masters of thinking long term and i think they'll probably decide that for all the crowds that have been drown out, it's still way too early to know if this visit will have real long-term ramifications. >> thanks very much. >> in rwanda, they banned plastic bags fibe years ago.

a look at the law that's exceptionally difficult to joup -- uphold. >> don't miss "down to earth." >> and welcome to the sunday night sports roundup on france 24. over the next 10 minutes i'll be bringing you the best of the action from this weekend. some football with the women's euro final between germany and norway. also the various finals in tennis and we'll tell you everything about the hungarian grand prix in bud abevt -- budapest. first the world swime -- swimming championships kicked off in barcelona today with the world's best swimmers ready to battle it out. first up, the men's 400 meter

free style. taking the silver, the american, conner jaeger. in the women's final, 16-year-old katie lidekie took it. the american becomes only the second to swim the 40ometer in under four -- four minutes. in the women's 10ometer freestyle relay, team u.s.a. led by olympic champ missy franklin took the gold. the australians led throughout the race. but megan romano for the u.s. made the difference in the

final lap. in the men's relay it seems like nothing's changed zins -- since the london olympics. the podium here in barcelona is exactly the same, proving once again that they are the fastest team. jeremy stavious, fabien gilot and his team won the gold. the australians finished foufingt. moving on to football now. the women's euro has come to an end and once again germany prevailed. the germans held on to their title. that's their seventh euro title, sixth in a row. norway the only team to have beaten the germans if competition since 1995. if they with reiterate that performance -- and the danes

got two impeachments, one in each half. both times germany's goal keeper made great saves. it's the third time norway have lost against germany in the final of the year. in men's football, a remake of the last champions league final on sort. bavarian munich -- bayern munich in the super cup final. bayern got the revenge. dortmupped got off to a perfect start. just after halftime, bayern leveled the score. dortmund retook the lead two minutes later courtesy of an own goal and made it 3-1. despite a second goal from robben, dortmund secured the 4-2 win.

this was their first defeat in a competitive game since taking over bayern. also a friendly against real madrid saturday night with real's new coach facing his former team for the first time since leaving paris. madrid came out on top with the gold -- goal. >> they're playing hard and they did a good game. everybody is playing good. >> p.f.g. will be playing their first official game on saturday for the french super cup which will take place in gabon. good news for p.s.g., after weeks of unsenly, marco and paris officials have come to an

agreement over the midfielder's salary, which will be increased. he's extended his contact --cratic -- contract with the french club. now to formula one and 9 hungarian grand prix. the race took place in the blistering heat of budapest with track temperatures reaching 50 degrees celsius. hamilton and his mercedes were the fastest. championship leader sebastian vitel of red bull completed the podium. >> i think you could tell i was hungry today. i need to get past those people, and generally i get stuck in traffic in my races and today i wasn't having it. >> halfway through the season

and vitel is comfortably ahead in the standings. hamilton is now fourth, just nine points behind alonso. next up, the belgian grand prix august 25. we finish it roundup with some tennis. nowsney finally won his -- youzhny finally won his first title. he has never lost to haas in their five career meetings. the russian didn't face a single break point in the match and lost just 13 points over the 10 service games. his ninth atp tour title. that's all the sports for now. thanks for watching france 24.

stay tuned for more news.

>> this police squad is off to round up law breakers in indonesia's most conservative islamic region. they are the shari'a police and it's not vandals or threesks -- thieves they're after. women exposing their hair is only one of the controversial crimes considered to be against local shar aye law. % the local mayor has called on women passengers to sit side-saddle on motor bike, claiming that straddling is sexually suggestive, unfeminine and unislamic. >> this is not allowed under islam and is not in accordance with our local customs. >> while an official regulation has yet to be issued, police

are already pulling women over and forcing them to sit sideways. >> i think that the shari'a by laws are good to improve moral -- moral standards in the community and to give moral guidance. people should live in accordance with these bylaws. >> women's rights activists complain that islamic regulations are growing increasingly sexist and unreasonable and that the male-dominated government is hijacking shar aye to control we. >> we are seeing the trend where governments are carrying out acts of injustice against women. islamic shari'a is not seeng seen from the female perspective. the leaders here need to have a deeper understanding of the role women can play. >> they were given the power to

implement in 2001 under a special agreement with jakarta aimed at quelling a separatist movement. but exactly how shari'a law was included in the deal is shrouded in mystery, with many saying they never wanted it and that the rebelled never actually requested it.

hello, welcome to "newsline." it's monday, july 29th. i'm catherine kobayashi in tokyo. israeli and palestinian leaders have spent three years refusing to speak. u.s. secretary of state john kerry has been pushing for months to bring them back to the negotiating table. now he's persuaded those senior aides to come together in washington. kerry spoke over the telephone